


Handler

by Louffox



Series: For the Wild Friends [2]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, During the 18 months before the end of the Rome arc, Handler, It's not particularly cruel or explicit manipulation, M/M, Manipulation, Origins, and I wrote this on my phone while more than half asleep so apologies, no beta we die like men, professional, the b team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24272413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louffox/pseuds/Louffox
Summary: Wilde knows how to manage a team. He's building this one with scraps of what he can find, and figuring out what strings to pull and buttons to push isn't easy. But it's doable.
Relationships: Commander Barnes/Howard Carter (Rusty Quill Gaming)
Series: For the Wild Friends [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752115
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43





	Handler

Of course Wilde had notes on how to handle each member of the party.

Not physical notes, to be sure. He wasn't an idiot. (Though to lose to this enemy meant a complete and total loss of all intel in all forms, they would get it regardless of whether it was written on paper or in his mind - anyways.) Just carefully observed and noted. Little theories. A bit of conjecture.

He was the handler, for godssakes. He was supposed to be able to handle them.

(Sure, the whole situation with Grizzop had become rather "handler, handle thyself" but that was done and behind him, and not something he would dwell on nor repeat.)

Handling Hamid was often simple. He had a rich entitled english schoolboy mentality that Wilde had been predicting and manipulating since he' himself been a british schoolboy with a blacked eye and a decision to step on whoever he must to ensure he was never the one getting stepped on. Though he did butt heads with Zolf often enough, as long as Wilde left room for Zolf to retreat and Azu to step in, it was manageable. 

Zolf wasn't as obvious, but he only took two paths, so even if Oscar wasn't sure which way he would swing on each occasion, it was a simple job to see both options Zolf put for himself and simply accommodate for both. Either he would run up against something and decide it was nigh impossible and would stew and simmer in the shadow of his made mountains for days, or he would throw himself at the cliffs and summit or die trying.

Azu wasn't hard to handle. Yet. She was strong willed and didn't parlay or run herself in logic circles like Hamid and Zolf could. She moved in straight lines. So far, he'd yet to have an encounter where she had absolutely set herself in a line that went against his intended direction, but his plan for the day that happened was to simply outnumber her. She was incredibly loyal and wanted companionship and the wellbeing of the group above all things, so hoped she would give in if everyone else wanted to go the other way. Smaller arguments had happened so far, but he'd managed those by matching her clear honesty and stating the reality of the situation, and she was able to easily accept new information and change her own opinions without pride or belligerence, a rare gift he would never admit he admired.

Cel was a bit like Azu in that Wilde could handle them by making sure they were simply outnumbered, but their motivations were different. They didn't follow the group out of the same sheer loyalty Azu brought to the party, but out of a strange sort of uncertainty. They were brilliant, shockingly so, but they also lacked something. They froze in high pressure situations and seemed to look to others to be directed. They knew they were brilliant, but also seemed to know they weren't as street savvy as the others, and that brilliance was as often a flaw as it was a feature, leading them to talk themself in circles and lose sight of the original goal. Wilde was concerned they would simply leave at some point, go back to the life they'd led before, but they also had a clear heroism streak, and Wilde suspected that if he suggested he would save far more lives this way than that, they would listen. If he needed to, he could even be cruel and say that to have such brilliance and such power and not use it to save people meant that those deaths were on their hands due to knowledgeable negligence, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

He could be cruel to Azu as well and seed doubt of her goddess's love in her to force her to be more tightly bound to the group. Or bring up the loss of Grizzop and Sasha. He could use that to put Hamid in his place as well. He couldn't do that to Zolf, because the two options there would be for him to become more tightly bound, or to leave entirely, and Wilde wasn't sure which mood he'd be in, but he had other heavy handed ways of managing Zolf. Reminding him of the mission. Zolf feared his own responsibility above all things, and Wilde only had to remind him that nobody else would fill his place, and that he had quit once and those who'd taken his position had died, and say that he'd hoped Zolf had learned from that experience- or the experience paid by someone else, at least. And watch the fury be bound tight with guilt and he slide back into line.

When he'd found Carter rotting in a jail cell, abandoned and mostly starved, hands bound with solid steel mits, eyes haunted and confused, he'd not been entirely sure how to bring him to heel. He had no morality to draw upon, was smart enough to see Wilde spinning a logic trap, but stupid enough to not see the big picture. He wasn't loyal, and now that money meant nothing, Wilde couldn't even pay him into submission. Wilde knew as soon as he was fed, rested, and recovered, he would flounce. So he worked on convincing him (not hard, as it was the truth) that his shelter in Japan was the only safe place left in the world. He was a bit quieter than the Howard Carter he'd met once before, so he'd seen terrible things happen to the city from the tiny window of his cell, but he could probably figure out that he could run amok in Japan and thrive on thievery so long as he stayed on the island. He would know that Wilde's base wasn't the only safety.

He couldn’t just sleep with him, either. Because it was Carter’s idea, the venture would end up as Carter’s conquest, and Wilde viciously shot him down. Some could be handled in this manner, but he suspected Carter wasn’t one of them. He was too belligerent, too bratty, too much delighting in being a thorn, close and buried under the skin.

It was while Wilde was puzzling over this, Carter having cleared quarantine the day prior and was still sleeping off the massive meal he'd had, that Zolf arrived with his own asset.

Commander Tyler Joseph Barnes. He'd been working with Curie and the Harlequins since London had fallen, having seen some disturbing sights from the safety of the sea and stayed far away to watch the world fall apart, and had taken to the life of the resistance quite well. Zolf had been in Egypt to convene with the Harlequins and each splinter of resistance, just a check in they did every few months, and had seen Barnes give a report on the status of western european coast as seen from a ship.

After the conference, Barnes had been the one to seek out Zolf first. He'd been delighted to see the dwarf was okay, cheered on his decision to leave the Poseidon lot, and had admitted his distaste for the Harlequins. Zolf had offered him to join them in Japan, and Barnes had accepted on the spot.

Wilde was a bit irked at the lack of consultation, frankly. He and Zolf had been trying to put together a team or two, yes, but they had discussed options and had only decided on Carter so far. Wilde luckily had looked Commander Barnes up when he'd first arrested Zolf, so knew most of his history and knew what he was like, and he was actually a rather brilliant choice of a recruit, but he still smarted at the lack of communication Zolf tended toward.

And then, as the three of them sat at the table and discussed how to proceed and began catching Barnes up to their plans, Carter had emerged into the office, still stretching and yawning. He'd taken in the sight of their new friend and had froze.

"Carter, our other new recruit," Wilde introduced genially, taking in Barnes's broad chest and thick biceps and strong jaw, remembering Carter's offers, and internally wincing. Zolf was going to blow a gasket if Carter breezed in here and began attempting to whore himself out to the ex-Commander. As is, it had taken Wilde ages to convince Zolf that Carter was the right choice.

"Oh. Hi."

And then Wilde had him.

He knew he had him because Carter didn't do any obvious untoward moves, nor did he flinch, nor gawk, nor anything clear. He simply nodded once at Barnes, eyes clear and steady, and spoke hi. It wasn't bashful or accompanied with a double blink. Just a nod and a greeting.

Wilde knew exactly what had just happened. And he knew how he could handle Carter. Because the lack of flirtation wasn't a lack of interest. Because the simple polite greeting wasn't normal courtesy. Because the nod was not a nod. It was a bow. It was respect. It was submission.

If Wilde could handle Barnes, then Barnes could handle Carter. It was perfect. Wilde didn't question what made Carter suddenly acquiesce to Barnes, what had clicked so Wilde could see Carter mentally going to his knees before him. He knew how these things worked- sometimes, people just clicked. He wondered if Barnes even knew what had just happened. He doubted anyone did, save for himself. Perhaps not even Carter fully parsed what was going on. But Wilde knew- he'd been a master of interactions and relationships in all forms for his whole life, it was why he was where and who and how he was. He could see how their relationship would go, and he knew it was how he could handle them.

His team was complete.

**Author's Note:**

> still writing character studies and focusing on alllllll these NPC's before alex inevitably brutalizes us with them :)
> 
> Once again, ty for the friendly riders for watching me/encouraging me whilst writing this and etc.


End file.
